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YURI FOREMAN, A RETURN TO THE RING FOR A BOXING RABBI

Voice of Jewish Sport: A return to the ring for a boxing rabbi

Foreman and Cotto at the official weigh-in, in 2010

TWO YEARS after retiring, during which time he completed his studies to become a rabbi, Yuri Foreman will be making a welcome return to the boxing ring early next month. The light-middleweight 35-year-old became Israel’s first world champion back in 2009 when he defeated Daniel Santos and then hit the headlines a year later when he squared up against Miguel Cotto in the first fight to be held at the new Yankee Stadium. Losing that fight in dramatic style, slipping and tearing a knee ligament, but continuing after the referee had seemingly ended the contest, he lost his next fight and then seemingly hung up his gloves for good. However, now looking forward to his return, he said: “Anything you do or anything you love to do, once in a while it’s good to take a break. So, I retired for two years, but then realised that I miss it. I love what I do, I’m good at it and I just felt like I needed to do some more.” Hopefully in the mood to create some more sporting history.

WHILE HE never retired, relatively little has been heard of Noah Rubin since he won the 2014 junior title at Wimbledon. While he did make a wild card appearance at the US Open a couple of months after his win at SW19, he swapped his racket for his studies to focus on his education. His is though back in the headlines this week as not only did he win his first professional title at the Charlottesville Men’s Pro Challenger, he did it by completing one of the biggest comebacks in Challenger tennis’ secon tier history. The 19-year-old came back from a set and two breaks down, while also seeing off two match points to eventually beat Tommy Paul 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 to clinch the title, while for good measure, also picked up the tournament’s Sportsmanship Award. Ranked 553rd in the world, he said: “I’ve never got past the second round in a Challenger before this so winning the title is definitely a huge improvement. It was just a roller coaster and I tried to keep it together the best as possible.” That he seemingly did.

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